


Marching Orders

by Thistlerose



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Bechdel Test Pass, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-20
Packaged: 2018-09-09 22:47:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8916133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thistlerose/pseuds/Thistlerose
Summary: "I'm against the Empire," said Jyn. "That weapon they're making puts everyone at risk. It needs to be destroyed. That doesn't mean I'm on your side. It doesn't mean I'm one of you."





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was the scene I wanted but didn't get.

Jyn saw a swirl of white out of the corner of her eye, but refused to look up. She had nothing to say to Mon Mothma and hoped she'd walk right past without comment; the last thing she needed, or wanted, was an apology for the Rebels' ineffectuality. They might as well apologize to the whole galaxy. No wonder Saw had gone his own way.

She heard footfalls and bit her lip against a pre-emptive retort. _I have nothing to say to these people. They sent Cassian to kill my father. They're not_ my _people._

"Jyn." Mon Mothma's tone was low but incisive, commanding; Jyn looked up. "You must understand," Mon Mothma said, spreading her elegant hands against her cloak. 

"Oh, I get it" said Jyn. "I got voted down, so we're doing nothing."

"It's not that simple. The Rebel Alliance is just that, an alliance. I may be its elected leader, but that doesn't give me permission to act unilaterally, especially when the odds are so stacked against us. I can't send brave men and women to their almost certain deaths - not without a consensus that this is the right plan of action."

"It's the _only_ plan of action. Anyway," Jyn went on, "isn't it their choice, these brave men and women? _Shouldn't_ it be their choice? I thought this was the side that was supposed to be all about freedom."

Mon Mothma looked at her in silence for a few moments, those dark blue eyes steady. 

Jyn's stomach tightened. " _You_ can't act unilaterally," she said slowly, returning Mon Mothma's probing gaze. "But if some people here chose to go to Scarif on their own, of their own free will…"

"If they chose to do so, they would be going against orders."

"In other words, they'd be rebelling."

A corner of Mon Mothma's lips lifted slightly. "So they would."

"Of course," Jyn went on, "if they were never part of the Rebel Alliance in the first place…"

"Then they wouldn't be disobeying orders, so I suppose their conscience would be clear. If they were the sort of person who cared about following orders. But aren't you one of us, Jyn Erso? By now I would think we're on the same side."

_You sent Cassian to kill my father._ Her cheeks burned with sudden anger. But Cassian hadn't killed her father, she reminded herself. He'd had the chance, but he'd changed his mind, disobeyed orders. Instead, he'd risked his own life to save hers, and he'd really had no reason to; the Rebels had already gotten what they wanted out of her. She wasn't sure what she owed him for that, if she owed him anything. She owed the rest of these people nothing … though even as she thought it, it occurred to her that she'd probably be doing hard labor in an Imperial prison camp right now if it weren't for these people. 

Still.

"I'm against the Empire," said Jyn. "That weapon they're making puts everyone at risk. It _needs_ to be destroyed. That doesn't mean I'm on your side. It doesn't mean I'm one of you."

Mon Mothma nodded, not in agreement so much as acceptance - and maybe, Jyn thought with surprise, respect. "Anyone who went," she cautioned, "would be on their own. Should they fall into enemy hands, they could not hope for an extraction."

"Understood."

"I wonder if you do." For just a moment the blue eyes softened, and Jyn's stomach clenched again, not in anger or fear, but in something akin to sorrow; Mon Mothma might care if she failed, she thought, but everyone in the galaxy who might actually care about _her_ was now dead.

Fighting to keep her voice even she said again, "Understood."

"Then may the Force be with you."

_Trust the Force,_ Jyn's mother had told her in the moments before she'd died. _Trust the Force._ She never had, Jyn realized. Not once, not ever. No mysterious energy field that supposedly bound everything in the galaxy had ever done her one bit of good. She'd never even seen evidence for its existence. But she believed in her own convictions and abilities, and that would have to be enough. She believed in Cassian's innate goodness, and the bravery of Bodhi, Chirrut, Baze, and even K-2SO, all of whom would no doubt be perfectly willing to run off to Scarif with her if she asked.

For a few seconds she considered not asking them; it wasn't right of her to drag them into more danger. The high chance of failure was the very reason the Alliance refused to act. But _she_ was going, and the thought of going alone froze every particle inside her. She'd survived on her own for ten years, but she couldn't do this. She needed her--

She hesitated to call them her friends, or even think of them in those terms. Her people, she decided after a moment's consideration. Cassian, Bodhi, Chirrut, Baze, the damn droid. They were her people. Like Saw had been, once.

Jyn lifted her chin and told Mon Mothma for a third and final time, "Understood."

12/19/2016


End file.
